Around Melbourne
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Stand beneath a simulated thunderstorm, ponder eternal life, venture inside a massive lung-like inflatable installation and hear boundary-pushing sounds – Now or Never is back this winter.
Returning for a third year, the 2025 program has just dropped, cementing the festival as an exciting addition to Melbourne’s cultural calendar. From August 21 to 31, this multi-venue festival takes over some of Melbourne’s most iconic buildings to host artistic works at the forefront of creative innovation. With a whopping 140 events over 11 days, it features the recipe that the festival made waves with when it debuted – and some thrilling new elements.
The transformation of the Royal Exhibition Building into a cavernous rave cave has been a huge highlight from previous years, but this year the heritage space will morph into a completely different form. The space will house a massive installation by Spanish collective Penique Productions that will fill the building with a mammoth inflatable balloon to be experienced from the womb-like insides. ‘MATRIX’ will be on show for the first four days of the festival and it’ll be free to experience during the day, while also hosting immersive artistic evening events.
Melbourne Town Hall will also come to life with a large-scale installation, a kinetic textile artwork that will dramatically drape 20 metres across the ceiling, titled ‘Einder’ by Dutch artist Boris Acket. Rippling with light and sound, this piece will also be free to see for just three days at the start of the festival. On August 22, it will loom above a one-night-only long-table dining event curated by local cookbook author Julia Busuttil Nishimura (who you may know as Julia Ostro).
The pumping club nights will be moved over to Melbourne Town Hall this year, with another four huge events featuring genre-spanning sounds from local and international selectors, held over the second half of the festival. The all-electronic line-up includes techno-pop artist Marie Davidson, New York’s DJ Python, Amsterdam’s Young Marco, Sydney’s Logic1000 and more.
This year’s program also consists of deep listening events featuring pioneering musicians like German electronic producer Moritz von Oswald and pianist Laurel Halo at Melbourne Recital Centre. Plus, there'll be a series of fascinating panel discussions with science experts on future-focussed topics, from AI to immortality.
Two more large-scale installations appearing after dark will complete the city-wide takeover, as the facade of State Library Victoria is set to liquify with a huge audio-visual projection and the Evan Walker Bridge over the Yarra River will be immersed in a sonic installation.
To dive deeper on the full Now or Never 2025 program, head to the website. Subscribers can nab pre-sale tickets right now, and the general public sale will open at midday on Monday, June 23.
